The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
