The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although many VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book 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 corner that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
