The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that office in American history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
