The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief 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. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior 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 retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, 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 remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
