The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I had faith then and I hold that view presently."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a memo outlining situations in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
