The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
