The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
