The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in US history. While countless VPs were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings 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 considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character 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 sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
