The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, 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 chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
