The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most powerful occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless vice-presidents were limited to marginal or symbolic functions, Cheney held enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unresponsive planes nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Actions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," explicitly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting striking Iraq, frequently referencing agency briefings that were either thin or completely misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create initiatives to capture 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 earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the corner that remains unseen leave his lair? It's a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as VP. While he had minimal expertise in commerce but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
