The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that office in US history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance today."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, 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 shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
