The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that position in US history. While many second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, 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 lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
