The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, 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 cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
