The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that position in American history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating 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: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
