The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
