The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in US history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, especially 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 was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
