The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume 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 corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
