The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing 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: "Am I the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
