The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge sway 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 stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
