The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives 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. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were both thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author'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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
