The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the bastards who killed 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."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
