The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that position in American history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense 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 attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to apprehend the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
