The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful holders of that position in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge power during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "true president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and said the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: potentially, deception, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had composed a memo detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "access to essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing intelligence reports that were both thin or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the corporation increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
