The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author'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 background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
