The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, 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 come out of his lair? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
