The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals valued at billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
