The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. Although many VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied 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 Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
