The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, 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 shadows that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company increased from his previous salary while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
