The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. While many VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary 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. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that each person had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
