The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that office in American history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives 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 irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
