The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 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 recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
