The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that office in American history. Although many vice-presidents were confined to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting 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 strikes transformed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were both thin or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
