The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. While countless VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force 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: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his lair? It's a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
