The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together 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 vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
