The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of that office in US history. While many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty