The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty