The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
