The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Although many vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were whether thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as VP. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
