The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, 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 dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
