The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked 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 announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
