The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. Whereas many VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
