The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch 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 earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist'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 leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
