The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of that position in American history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
