The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of that position in American history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force 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: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
