The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public settings as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, 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 shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a nice way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Controversy over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm increased from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
