The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Although many VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the bastards 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 merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, 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 leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
