The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
