The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. While numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
