The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of that office in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
