The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief 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 engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
