The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion 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 reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
