The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier 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 witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
