The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in American history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief 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 participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
