The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed 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 regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
