The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion 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 participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memorandum detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether thin or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to catch the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? This represents a nice way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
