The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant holders of that position in the nation's history. While many VPs were confined to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were either thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his lair? This represents a advantageous way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
