The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of 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 White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
