The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Although many second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unidentified airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I had faith back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document outlining circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
