The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention 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 participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After 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 stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
