The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of that office in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume 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 background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
