The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol 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 invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
