The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government'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, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
