The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
