The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections 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 leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
