The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in American history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
