The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof 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 harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated 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 presently."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, 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 remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the company grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
