The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Although many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
