The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. While numerous VPs were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
