The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that position in American history. While countless VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part 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 aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees 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 correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 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 Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
