The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist'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 sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
