The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
