The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
