The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion 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 participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
