The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the bastards 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 praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader 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 operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
