The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary 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 involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 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 reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
