The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. While many VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
