The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
