The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, 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 nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
