The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot 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 accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
