The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a document setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at 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 running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty