The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
