The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
