The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book 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 emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
