The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
