The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
