The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
