The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as 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 playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management 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, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
