The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although many VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, 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 command, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
