The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of that position in American history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
