The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
