The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to 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 plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
