The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were either weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power 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 sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
