The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
