The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
