The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
