The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution 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 saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
