The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential holders of that position in American history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at the very least," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo setting out circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 declared his plan of reducing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as VP. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
