The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
