The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent 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 reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
