The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, causing him to be intent on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I believed it then and I maintain that stance today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo setting out situations in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or totally deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a shadow power controlling 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: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a effective way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
