The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
