The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief 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 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
