The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in American history. While many vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
