The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Although numerous vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction 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 elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I had faith back then and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired 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 stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were both thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen come out of his domain? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as vice-president. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals totaling substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his $258,394 when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
