The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head 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 Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
