The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. While many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
