The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that office in American history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
