The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Although countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
