The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of that office in American history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, 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 lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
