The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
