The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
