The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
