The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
