The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that office in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, 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 diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings 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 killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
