The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. While numerous VPs had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
