The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that office in US history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
