The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, 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 background that remains unseen come out of his lair? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
