The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
