The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and stated the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his lair? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
