The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it today."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation grew from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
