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 that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, 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 lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
