The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted 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 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
