The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey 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 face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who took the lives of 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 recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
