The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of that position in the nation's history. While countless VPs had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
