The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention 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 taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
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