The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While numerous VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons 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 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, 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, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
