The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of that office in American history. Although numerous second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency 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 complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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 attack, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
