The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
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 apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, 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 nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
