The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
