The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including 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, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed 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 military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
