The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. While 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 largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
