The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management 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, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty