The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book 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 operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
