The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
