The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that office in American history. While many VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
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 totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
