The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While many vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like 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, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book 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 operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
