The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, 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 reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the bastards 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 earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
