The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
