The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. Whereas many VPs were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the individuals who murdered 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 recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating 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: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
