The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that office in American history. While numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's participation in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
