The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of that position in US history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted 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 defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 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."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
