The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
