The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. While countless VPs were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted 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 participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief 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 deals worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
