The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that position in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
