The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were either weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
