The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
