The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that position in US history. Although countless VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his lair? It's a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
