The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many second-in-commands were limited to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently referred to as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and said the connection was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of governmental choices.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, making him become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I hold that view presently."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating 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 malevolent mastermind in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company rose from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
