The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it back then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior 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 position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether thin or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
