The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
