The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation 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 having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow 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 stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
