The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired 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 announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 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 praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
