The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While many vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
