The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their association as a team because it indicated that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the strikes transformed him, making him become focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I believed it at the time and I believe it today."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," specifically mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the corner that operates invisibly come out of his lair? This represents a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
