The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed 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 carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, especially 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 chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
