The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication 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 corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
