The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
