The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level 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 post. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, 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 involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
