The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty
