The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume 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 shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
