The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
