The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of that position in American history. Whereas many VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, 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 corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
