The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling 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 saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
