The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
