The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a effective way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
