The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
