The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of that office in US history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though 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 biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
