The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief 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. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level 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 role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book 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 advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
