The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
