The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of that office in American history. While many VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion 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 participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
