The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for 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 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
