The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist'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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
