The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence 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 background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
