The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief 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 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
