The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of that position in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government'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 "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired 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 stated his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
