The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office 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 treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
