The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
