The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators 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 praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, 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 became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
