The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book 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 background that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
