The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked 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 stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling 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: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
