The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of that position in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the downing of any unidentified planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were both weak or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
