The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 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 credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
