The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention 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 educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution 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 post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
