The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that office in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together 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 pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
