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 many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
