The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
