The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion 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 educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. While he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
