The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
