The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent 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 response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, 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, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed 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 objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
