The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance 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 also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
