The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted 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 participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level 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 role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
