The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
