The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 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."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
