The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that office in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
