The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of that office in American history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior 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 not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing 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 conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
