The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that position in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
