The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, 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 emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
