The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction 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 elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment 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 furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
