The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
