The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that position in US history. Although countless VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
