The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, 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 engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty