The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas many VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied 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 little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely 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 sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
