The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Although many VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed 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 regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty