The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While many VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level 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 saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in defence, 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 top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
