The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level 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 post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
