The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
