The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm 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 totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
