The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. Although countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 while military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
