The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
