The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
