The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. Although countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators 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 Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
