The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of that office in American history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were either weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book 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 corner that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
