The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of that office in US history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a effective way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
