The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
