The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion 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: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
