The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired 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 declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as vice-president. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
