The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
