The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. While countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion 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 participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive airplanes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it then and I believe it presently."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting information documents that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
