The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that position in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
