The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture 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 Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
