The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 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."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
