The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports 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 now."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, 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 was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
