The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. Although countless VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were either weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, 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 operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
