The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed 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 regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
