The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. 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 strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist'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 malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a effective way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
