The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
