The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in American history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
