The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While countless VPs were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
