The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous VPs were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action 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 journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
