The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
