The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless VPs were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The 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 strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
