The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume 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 shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
