The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of that position in US history. While countless VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit 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 countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either thin or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his previous salary while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
