The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary 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 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined 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 opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, 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 remains unseen leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
