The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that position in US history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
