The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? It's a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
