The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty