The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that office in American history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
