The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating 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: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
