The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of that office in American history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion 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 attending a session at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
