The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary 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. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion 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 background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
