The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier 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 role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume 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 nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
