The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th 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 underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
