The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
