The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion 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 participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
