The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always calling him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the downing of any unidentified planes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance now."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's participation in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's face that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication 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 shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his previous salary during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
