The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that office in US history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
