The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following 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 intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion 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 cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
