The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While countless VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence 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 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse 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 stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following 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 stated his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting intelligence reports that were both thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
