The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
