The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
