The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted 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 Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
