The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, especially 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 chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
