The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
