The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
