The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although numerous VPs were limited to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the laidback president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 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. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided 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 announced his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both thin or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? It's a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
