The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise 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 petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
