The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended 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 course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
