The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either weak or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 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 praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
