The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
