The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as one of the most influential occupants of that office in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
