The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
