The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of that position in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "access to crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
