The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given 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 Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
