The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author'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 shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
