The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless second-in-commands were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the correct action to do then. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests followed him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
