The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in American history. While countless VPs were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple 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 declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
