The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating 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 sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
