The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it presently."
However even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, 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 remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
