The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
