The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume 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 corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty