The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept 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 reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
