The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at 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 $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
