The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While many VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
