The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After 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 plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
