The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in US history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, causing him to be intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the firm grew from his $258,394 during his time as military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
