The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a nice way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
