The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith back then and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of reducing America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
