The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention 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 meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
