The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary 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 participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
