The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that office in American history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
