The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion 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 attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating 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 background that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
