The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
