The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Whereas many VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea 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 sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
