The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were both weak or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
