The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that position in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, 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 no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking 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 hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
