The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
