The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer 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 educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, 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 floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating 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 sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
