The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to kill 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 father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
