The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of that position in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch 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 earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author'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 sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
