The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
