The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that position in American history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his lair? This represents a nice way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals worth billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
