The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, 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 corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
