The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
