The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
