The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
