The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Whereas numerous vice-presidents were limited to minor or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "actual president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and said the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the downing of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the waterboarding of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate intelligence repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
