The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
