The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government'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 "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
