The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of that position in American history. Whereas many VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling 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 "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow 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 objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience 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 energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
