The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts 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 chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
