The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of 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 executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
