The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action 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 approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked 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 declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
