The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer 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 school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
