The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed 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 lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
