The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 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 recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, 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 remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
