The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
