The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction 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 elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book 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 shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? This represents a nice way to work, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
