The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were limited to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (including "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were either thin or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
