The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Although many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating 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: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
