The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
