The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following 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 lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
