The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of that position in American history. While many VPs were limited to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, making him become determined on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action prove impossible," specifically mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's face that each person had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or completely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the journalist'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 sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
