The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
