The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power 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: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
