The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that position in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
