The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
