The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently calling him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention 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 attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the destruction of any unidentified airplanes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes changed him, making him become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals 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 represented the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be threatened (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were both thin or totally inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his lair? That is a nice way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
