The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were limited to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably addressing him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
