The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
