The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, 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 invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 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 praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
