The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. While countless VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book 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 shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
