The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
