The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the perpetrators 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 praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
