The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
