The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
