The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant holders of that office in American history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted 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 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
