The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume 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 background that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
