The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt 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.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
