The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
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 stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
