The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
