The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
