The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain 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: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
