The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
