The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Whereas many VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed 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. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
