The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that office in American history. Although countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer 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 gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memorandum detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence 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 sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? It's a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
