The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
