The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in American history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in business but strong connections in military, 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 top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
