The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of that office in US history. While many vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary 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 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
