The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents 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 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
