The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of that office in American history. While many VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
