The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, 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 remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty