The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
