The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of that position in US history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion 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 attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest 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 one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
