The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
