The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, 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 corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
