The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence 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 suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
