The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum 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 military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
