The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives 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 Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
