The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
