The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to catch the individuals 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 credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
