The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head 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 engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author'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 sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
