The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered arguably the most significant occupants of that position in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the easygoing president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of neo-conservatives that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 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. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified aircraft nearing the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it at the time and I maintain that stance now."
However even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a document setting out scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, frequently quoting intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to capture the bastards 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 praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly come out of his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his business interests accompanied him through his period as VP. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US agreements valued at multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
