The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, 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 nobody ever sees come out of his domain? It's a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
