The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
