The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Although many VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed 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 stated his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, 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 leave his domain? It's a nice way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
