The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing 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: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, 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 chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
