The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 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 based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed 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 secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
