The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
