The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
