The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
