The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most significant holders of that position in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to minor or figurehead positions, Cheney exercised huge influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It was the correct action to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a document outlining circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion 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: "Do I represent the evil genius in the background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation increased from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
