The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary 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. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
