The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary 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. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
