The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become intent on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance today."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
