The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of that position in American history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist'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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
