The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
