The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined 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 opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning 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 "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
