The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that position in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
