The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks 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 September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "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," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
