The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of that position in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
