The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
