The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
