The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
