The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
