The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
