The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the individuals who killed 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."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
