The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
