The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that position in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering 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 aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
However even then, 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 region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a effective way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in military, especially 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 chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company grew from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
