The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that position in American history. While numerous VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks 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 headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
