The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
