The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced 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 representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
