The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
