The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
