The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
