The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. While many VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
