The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
