The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance now."
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 region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
