The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture 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 earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book 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 corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
