The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential holders of that office in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker'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 malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a nice way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
