The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication 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 shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
