The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
