The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
