The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover 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.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
