The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks 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. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence 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: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary while military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
