The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level 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 witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
