The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of that position in US history. While countless VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in 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 most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
