The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
