The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the individuals who took the lives of 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 credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
