The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior 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 position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
