The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force 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 malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
