The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty