The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response 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 headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After 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 plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both thin or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
