The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
