The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that position in American history. Although countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated 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 participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary 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 participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
