The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover 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 showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
