The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although countless VPs were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? That is a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably 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 CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
