The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While many VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, 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 corner that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
