The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While many second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution 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 observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
