The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention 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 lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
