The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain 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 shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
