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 the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief 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 engagement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
