The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering 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 private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
