The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in American history. Although numerous second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
