The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
