The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either weak or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
