The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant holders of that position in US history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
