The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
