The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling 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: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
