The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder 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 surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
