The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked 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 declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
