The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
