The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the connection was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memorandum detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed 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 Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were both thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
