The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant holders of that position in American history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view today."
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 Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired 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 diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers 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 duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
