The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of that office in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
