The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks 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. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
