The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were either weak or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
