The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although countless VPs were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
