The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although numerous VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, 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 invasion, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
