The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Although countless VPs were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
