The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
