The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. While many VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
