The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas many VPs were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked 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 announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
