The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether weak or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals 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 earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that remains unseen come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
