The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
