The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While countless VPs were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
