The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were limited to minor or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a group of neo-cons that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a gathering 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 unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance today."
But during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a document setting out circumstances in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were whether weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
