The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many VPs were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
