The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense 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. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his domain? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
