The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the dynamic was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a document detailing circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed 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 lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that all visitors had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney enjoyed monikers given to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
