The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although many vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey 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 visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
