The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
