The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
