The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. While many vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels 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 Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, 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 operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
