The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
