The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 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 credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
