The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
