The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
