The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked 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 plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend 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 merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
