The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view today."
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 dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief 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 suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling 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 corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
