The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
