The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of that office in US history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
