The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
