The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
