The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that position in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention 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 school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 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 credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
