The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols 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 praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a effective way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
