The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of that position in US history. Whereas many vice-presidents were limited to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or 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 inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, 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 corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
