The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
