The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief 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. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
