The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. While many VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
