The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to minor or ceremonial roles, Cheney held enormous influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney found the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer 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 elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had drafted a memo setting out scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been behind a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's face that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
