The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
