The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
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 strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing 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 scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
