The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of that position in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
