The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated 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 assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence 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: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially 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 was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
