The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any non-communicating planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the harsh treatment of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It was the proper decision to do then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and recklessness: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in 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 accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the two, 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 come out of his lair? That is a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
