The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. While many vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
