The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence 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. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
