The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it suggested that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer 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 headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view today."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
