The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence 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. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
