The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of that position in American history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
