The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion 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 session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
However even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, 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 come out of his domain? That is a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
