The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, 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 reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the individuals 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 praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume 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 corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
