The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence 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 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
