The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that position in US history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling 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: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
