The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
