The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant holders of that position in the nation's history. While many VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation 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 being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
