The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant occupants of that position in American history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become focused on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either thin or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
