The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating 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: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
