The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion 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 taking part in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication 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 shadows that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
