The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired 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 announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
