The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty