The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
