The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for minor or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency somewhat determined on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to 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 declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 when he was military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling over $20m|twenty
