The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist'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 operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
