The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that position in American history. While countless VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House'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 "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
