The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
