The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most powerful holders of that position in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to minor or symbolic roles, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating 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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the company rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
