The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
