The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th 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 traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although 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, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
