The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were either thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
