The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
