The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired 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 declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
