The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association 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.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
