The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it 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 White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 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 recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
