The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. Although many VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
