The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
