The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many VPs were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."
But even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
