The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most powerful occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it now."
But even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application 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 "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth over $20m|twenty
