The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. While many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction 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 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures 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 earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book 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 remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
