The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired 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 stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
