The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful holders of that office in the nation's history. While countless second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a team because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction 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 invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it today."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be compromised (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his father's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were either weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 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 credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power 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: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
