The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
