The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
