The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
