The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume 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 leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
