The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
