The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith back then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty