The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating 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 malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
