The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
