The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While many vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction 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. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, 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 likeness of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind striking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
