The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
